Photo by Angel Fox ‘26
By Angel Fox ’26
Contributing Writer
Professor Ben Boatwright’s course, Topics in Planetary Science: The Moon, recently hosted a guest lecture delivered by planetary scientist Dr. Charles Hibbitts as part of a bi-monthly guest scientist speaker series in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory. The series has included an impressive list of planetary science experts including Debra Buczkowski, Angela Stickle and Lauren Jozwiak. Their groundbreaking work at the JHUAPL offers valuable insights into planetary science and provides students with an exceptional opportunity to engage with leading researchers in the field.
The class lectures are preceded by dinner at Blanchard Hall, and any interested student was welcome to join the dinner, regardless of major or class enrollment. Students interested in attending the class lecture afterward can reach out to Boatwright for permission.
As a planetary scientist at the JHUAPL, Hibbitts focuses on understanding the composition of the surfaces of airless bodies in our solar system, especially the connection between surface composition, geology and exogenic influences, which are external forces that shape a planetary body. Understanding the structures of our planetary neighbors is critical in understanding our own planet’s possible past and future, as well as our ability to someday inhabit or work from other rocky worlds. Currently, Hibbitts is exploring the potential of water extraction on the Moon for possible human lunar missions with a sustained presence in the future.
According to his biography on the JHUAPL website, Dr. Hibbitts is the deputy principal investigator of the Europa Clipper MISE infrared mapping spectrometer, and was deputy PI and mid-IR camera lead on the NASA BRRISON — the acronym for the Balloon Rapid Response for ISON — which studied comet C/2012 S1, also called ISON. In addition, he worked on Balloon Observation Platform for Planetary Science, or BOPPS, stratospheric balloon missions which studied a number of objects in our solar system, including an Oort cloud comet.
After earning degrees in physics and geology, he served in the military, and then went to graduate school to get a doctorate in geology and geophysics. In an interview with NASA posted to the NASA website, Hibbitts stated, “A planetary scientist is often a jack of all trades, with a specialization in one area. In my case, I have a diverse background in physics and geology that helps me to understand the various processes that shape our solar system. I have focused on using infrared spectroscopy to understand the composition and geology of solid bodies in our solar system.”
The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite mission was the first to confirm that significant amounts of water exist on or just beneath the Moon's surface. However, accessing this water presents significant challenges. The south pole crater on the Moon where mining will take place is almost two miles deep and permanently shadowed from sunlight. If future missions needed access to that water, multiple determining factors could make extraction unsafe. There is no atmosphere on the Moon, so the water in the craters would be frozen from lack of sun. The depth of the water also poses safety risks. Additionally, the dust on the Moon, known as lunar regolith, is not benign like Earth’s soil; as a remnant of the Moon’s volcanic past, it contains volcanic and impact glasses – akin to fiberglass – that could damage equipment and health. This is just the tip of the moon crater when it comes to the difficulties that future astronauts may face in lunar water extraction.
Additional complications arise surrounding the pristine nature of the Moon. The Moon belongs to no nation, according to the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. Humans have been utilizing the Moon’s phases to track time and harvests, and have religious ceremonies. It has held a precious place in folklore, culture, and even identity for millennia. That is why over a hundred nations have signed the treaty to ensure the Moon is kept as pristine as it is today for future generations, and why all Moon projects follow guidelines set by the treaty with special considerations towards Indigenous people. There is also the Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium working with NASA to ensure Moon practices are environmentally-friendly practices. It is imperative that the choice for the crater in which to extract water also follows these guidelines and respects public opinions.
Transporting heavy objects off the Earth’s surface requires a great amount of energy and fuel, and future space operations need to account not only for the items onboard spacecraft, but also for compounding weight difficulties. Each additional item added to the spacecraft creates additional weight, which requires even more fuel. Having resources available off planet, especially water, would revolutionize space exploration and reduce the financial and environmental strain on space agencies. Readily available resources on planetary bodies would determine the success or failure of sustained missions to other worlds. If successful, this lunar water extraction technique could be adapted and applied on many different planetary bodies. As humanity seeks to become spacefaring, securing critical resources without the need to transport them off Earth could make that vision a reality.
Yet, if humanity were to extract the water on the Moon, it must be considered that lunar water is a finite resource that takes millions of years to accumulate. This water/ice is not readily accessible; rather, it is embedded within the lunar regolith due to how it is formed. Comets, asteroids, micrometeorites and even rocket exhaust gases contribute to some of the lunar water’s delivery. Interestingly, the sun is also responsible. Our sun is made up of hydrogen gas, and its solar wind implants hydrogen molecules to make hydroxyl, or OH, bonds in silicates. The dust and rocks on the Moon contain oxygen and hydrogen, and the OH of rocks and H of the solar wind combine to form water molecules, or H2O. Over time, through temperature driven migration, the ice settles at the bottom of the Moon crater. In addition, volcanic H2 and H2O bound in minerals and gases also account for water creation on the lunar surface.
Detection methods have aided scientists in finding water on the Moon’s surface. For example, the neutron spectrometer indirectly detects hydrogen based on how neutrons and protons interact; nanophase iron from hydrogen oxidized iron in silicates and high reflectivity are also indicators. In addition, the Chang'E-5 lander, which was the Chinese National Space Administration lunar sample return mission, made the first on-site detection of lunar water in 2020. The mission returned lunar regolith samples to Earth and lab analysis confirmed the presence of water. Through additional different studies it appears there could be enough water present in the Moon’s south pole craters to mine. However, extraction methods present significant challenges due to the amount of regolith needed to extract relatively small amounts of water.
Processing water on the Moon would require a strip-mining operation, raising significant concerns about risks of the operation, public perception and cost. These are all potentially prohibitive challenges our future Moon miners face. It has been agreed that the north pole of the Moon is protected from any and all future missions to keep it pristine, which would assuage some public perception. Yet the question remains: are the benefits worth the potential hazards and backlash the JHUAPL, LSIC, NASA and other similar organizations may face? As humanity strives to become more productive and sustainable in our spacefaring future missions, the trade-offs between risk and reward remain a pivotal point of contention. Attending the lecture with Hibbitts provided attendees with valuable insights into the challenges our future space missions face. For Mount Holyoke students interested in conversing with experts like him at future dinners, these lectures are an opportunity to learn more about the work shaping our exploration of the Moon and beyond in future lecture series and astronomy courses.
Although the series is complete for this semester’s course on the Moon, Boatwright will be teaching ASTR-330: Topics in Planetary Science: Ocean Worlds next fall, as well as ASTR-104 Planet Earth and ASTR-223 Planetary Science in the Spring 2025 semester.
Boatwright said, “I am planning to do something a little different next fall, so it's still going to be sort of a seminar based class, it'll still be [ASTRO] 330: Topics in Planetary Science. I'm going to be focusing on ocean worlds … Europa, Titan, Enceladus, these moons of the outer planets that people have gotten really interested in the last decade or so. We have a couple different missions that are either currently on their way to these places; the Europa Clipper, for example, launched recently. It's going to Jupiter … certainly register for ASTRO 330 and I'm hoping it's going to be a lot of fun.”
Madeleine Diesl ’28 contributed fact-checking.